How do photosynthesis and cellular respiration relate? …

CellEnergySE | Cellular Respiration | Photosynthesis

NAD+ and FAD act like electron shuttle buses for the cell. The empty buses, NAD+ and FAD, drive up to oxidation reactions and collect electron passengers. When the electrons get on the bus, the driver puts up the H sign to show that the bus is full. Then the full buses, NADH and FADH2, drive over to reactions that need electrons and let the passengers off. The buses are now empty again, so they drive back to another oxidation reaction to collect new passengers. During cellular respiration, the electron shuttle buses drive a loop between the reactions of glycolysis and the Krebs cycle (where they pick up passengers) to the electron transport chain (where they drop off passengers).

Cellular respiration is also important in the movement of matter through living systems: As living things break down food molecules using cellular respiration, they release the atoms from the food molecules back out into the environment as carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis brings in carbon dioxide and water from the environment, and cellular respiration sends them out again, forming a circular matter pathway that scientists call the carbon cycle.

The fact that both resort to the 'electron transport chain' when it comes to the movement of electrons is perhaps one of the most prominent similarities between photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

The photosynthesis-cellular respiration relationship also explains why the two are necessary for the presence of life on the planet.

In the information of each of these two processes, you must have noticed that the products of one process are reactants of another - and vice versa.

How is Photosynthesis Related to Cellular Respiration

In order to understand how photosynthesis is related to cellular respiration, one has to get well-versed with the basics of each of them.

Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis is a process wherein synthesis of sugar (glucose) is carried out using sunlight (which acts as the radiant energy), carbon dioxide and water.

How are photosynthesis and cellular respiration related?

During photosynthesis, a plant is able to convert solar energy into a chemical form. It does this by capturing light coming from the sun and, through a series of reactions, using its energy to help build a sugar molecule called glucose. Glucose is made of six carbon atoms, six oxygen atoms, and twelve hydrogen atoms. When the plant makes the glucose molecule, it gets the carbon and oxygen atoms it needs from carbon dioxide, which it takes from the air. Carbon dioxide doesn't have any hydrogen in it, though, so the plant must use another source for hydrogen. The source that it uses is water. There is a lot of water on the earth, and every water molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. In order to take the hydrogen it needs to build glucose molecules, the plant uses the energy from the sun to break the water molecule apart, taking electrons and hydrogen from it and releasing the oxygen into the air. The electrons it takes are put into an electron transport system, where they are used to produce energy molecules called ATP that are used to build the glucose molecule-- all made possible by the sun's energy. Thus, during photosynthesis a plant consumes water, carbon dioxide, and light energy, and produces glucose and oxygen.

The sugar glucose is important because it is necessary for cellular respiration. During cellular respiration, the chemical energy in the glucose molecule is converted into a form that the plant can use for growth and reproduction. In the first step of respiration, called glycolysis, the glucose molecule is broken down into two smaller molecules called pyruvate, and a little energy is released in the form of ATP. This step in respiration does not require any oxygen and is therefore called anaerobic respiration. In the second step of respiration, the pyruvate molecules are rearranged and combined and rearranged again in a cycle. While the molecules are being rearranged in this cycle, carbon dioxide is produced, and electrons are pulled off and passed into an electron transport system which, just as in photosynthesis, generates a lot of ATP for the plant to use for growth and reproduction. This last step requires oxygen, and therefore is called aerobic respiration. Thus, the final result of cellular respiration is that the plant consumes glucose and oxygen and produces carbon dioxide, water, and ATP energy molecules.

At first, this doesn't seem to make any sense! If the plant can use the energy from the sun to make ATP, why does it go through all the trouble of then using up the ATP to make glucose, just so it can get ATP again? There are two reasons why the plant does this. First, in addition to ATP, the plant needs materials to grow. Glucose is an important building block that is necessary to produce all of the proteins, DNA, cells, tissues, etc. that are important to life, growth, and reproduction. Second, one problem with the sun is that it goes away every night, and during winter it isn't very bright. The plant needs energy all of the time. So, by producing glucose, the plant can store this molecule and then use it to produce energy during the night and over winter when there isn't enough sun to provide good photosynthesis.

It is very interesting how photosynthesis and cellular respiration help each other. During photosynthesis, the plant needs carbon dioxide and water-- both of which are released into the air during respiration. And during respiration, the plant needs oxygen and glucose, which are both produced through photosynthesis! So in a way, the products of photosynthesis support respiration, and the products of respiration support photosynthesis, forming a cycle.

While plants can complete this cycle by themselves, animals cannot, since animals aren't capable of photosynthesis! This means that animals have to survive solely through respiration. Also, since we animals can't produce glucose by ourselves, we have to get it from somewhere else-- from eating plants. We produce carbon dioxide that the plants need, and they produce the oxygen that we need, and then we eat them to get the glucose that we need. It seems that we need the plants a lot more than they need us!

Answer to How are photosynthesis and cellular respiration related?

Autotrophs and heterotrophs do cellular respiration to break down food to transfer the energy from food to ATP. The cells of animals, plants, and many bacteria use oxygen to help with the energy transfer during cellular respiration; in these cells, the type of cellular respiration that occurs is aerobic respiration (aerobic means “with air”).

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Question: How is photosynthesis related to cellular respiration

Glucose and oxygen (though a bi-product) - which happen to be the products of photosynthesis, are required to facilitate cellular respiration, while carbon dioxide - which is a bi-product of cellular respiration, is required to facilitate the process of photosynthesis.

How Are Photosynthesis And Cellular Respiration Related …

A lot of my college students still have trouble with this one. The reactions that happen in respiration and photosynthesis are different, but if we just look at what goes in and what comes out, they're opposites.

Plants can do both. When they have light, they use it as an energy source to put the pieces of CO2 and H2O to make sugar. They can put a bunch of sugars together to make starch (what foods are starchy?), cellulose (the stringy stuff you can't chew up), and wood.

When it's dark, they can do cellular respiration to break down the starch and sugar to release the energy they need.

Poor animals, we can only do cellular respiration. We need foods like starch, and oxygen, and we breathe out the CO2 that's made. We don't get enough water from the process to take care of all of our needs so we have to drink more. Kangaroo rats don't have to drink water. They conserve water a lot better than we do.

Can plants live without animals? Can animals live without plants?Thanks for asking.

How are photosynthesis and respiration related? | …

In other words, the plants and other lifeforms which resort to photosynthesis are dependent on organisms which resort to cellular respiration for carbon dioxide, and all these organisms are - in turn, dependent on the glucose that they derive from plants for their energy requirements.

Cellular Respiration: In the process of cellular respiration, the biochemical energy derived from nutrients is converted to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is necessary for these organisms to facilitate various life functions. ”

How Reactions Photosynthesis And Cellular Respiration Related

By Caitlin Taduran Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are related in that oxygen and glucose, being the products of photosynthesis, are the ingredients necessary to enable the process of cellular respiration.